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Forum Index : Windmills : VAWT Novelty Wind Generator Design

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optimux
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Joined: 10/09/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 2

Posted: 02:01pm 10 Sep 2010

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I am embarking on my first wind generator project so as a novice I am seeking some advice.

It's a partly a novelty project based on a rotary clothes line where the horizontal strcuture has a diameter of about 4 metres.

It needs to capture enough wind power to turn this thing that will generate enough power that could be used to light it up at night so at least it looks like it generates power! I have considered using a car alternator belt driven from a horizontally mounted pully on the structure, together with a car regulator and battery as the power source.

While I expect to have to modify the pole to include bearings with say a car or trailer wheel hub, my question is what would be the most efficient design to capture the wind?

My thoughs were to create a cyclindrical "drum" design around the perimeter of the 4 metre diameter structure. This would comprise of 500m lengths of vertically mounted blades (made from 90mm pvc pipe cut vertically into thirds). Without going into mounting details, the curved blades would be spaced about 100mm apart around the perimeter of the structure.

The other option I thought would be to mount say 4 larger vertical blades on top of each of the 4 arms of the structure. This seems to fit with most "normal" VAWT designs I have seen.

Another option I had thought of was to use something like half plastic barrels horizontally mounted on each end of the 4 arms of the structure. This design seems a bit cluncky though.

There is obviously a lot of expertise in this forum so I would be most appreciative of anyone who may be able to pass on their experience to give me a bit of a heads up. If this idea comes to pass I would love to share the final outcome with you!

Thanks, Chris

arklan
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Joined: 18/08/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 29

Posted: 10:37am 11 Sep 2010

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you are being a bit ambitious with just a regular hills hoist cloths line :p

my advice is just to put a small savonius on top of the cloths line on its own bearing, so the cloths line just acts as the tower.

to have just a regular fluro lightbulb like one youd have in your house youd only need the savonius to produce 50 watts since it would need to compensate for when the wind isnt blowing.

a 50 watt savonius would be miniscule compared to what people usually make here and could be easily done.

if you want to have something like a 100 watt spot light from a car then you wouldnt be able to use the clothes line as a tower since most hills hoist clothes lines are only in the ground about a foot to half a metre.

Downwind

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Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 04:07pm 11 Sep 2010

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I think arklan's comments it worth listening to, a H,Hoist is not suitable for a vawt and never will be.

You are flogging a dead hoist idea that has more problems than answers.

If you want to build a mill at least start with a plan that has some merit of producing power, as the H,H wont.

Sorry to dampen your idea but see little point in kidding you into a failed idea before you start.

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

KiwiJohn
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Joined: 01/12/2005
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 691

Posted: 09:37pm 11 Sep 2010

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Hi Chris.

I do not know why people are so dismissive of what you clearly state is a novelty idea.

The clothesline is rather big diameter and as the tips of the arms will never move much, if any, faster than the wind you can imagine that the RPM will always be rather low.

However, even at those RPM a F@P would produce 'something' but it might only be enough to light a good display of LEDS!

Good luck, have fun and dont forget to post pictures!

John

optimux
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Joined: 10/09/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 2

Posted: 02:07am 13 Sep 2010

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Thank you for both your frank and supportive posts. As mentioned the intent was to create a visual novelty project, but at the same to try and get as much power out of it as possible. I'm not clear on what the main problems are that make this a dead hoist of an idea but I'll have a bit more of a think about it before I get the welder out. Cheers Chris

arklan
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Joined: 18/08/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 29

Posted: 08:51am 13 Sep 2010

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the main problem is that the cloths line isnt very well embedded in to the ground.
you can use the cloths line as the tower and put a windmill on top no problem but it wouldnt be that powerful because its low to the ground.
if u want to put something pretty good on top of the clothes line u could even put guy wires on the 4 corners of the clothes line to strengthen it.
if you want to have the clothes line itself spin around youll need to dig it out and lengthen the pole by bolting some pipe around the outside. then concrete it in, youll want to put it down atleast a metre.
a metre might seem like a lot and for 364 days of the year it will be overkill, but 1 day when u have a storm it may blow the poor bugger over.

can u describe how u want the clothes line windmill to look?

Downwind

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Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 03:08pm 13 Sep 2010

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A bunch of leds around it and nasa will pick it up from space as a ufo

If you want the lights on the cloths line you could reverse the stator hub assembly and fix the magnet hub and rotate the stator.
Keeping all this central will not be easy and still think it will be a nighmare project that would be easier to start from scratch and build it to be strong and reliable.

If its not a dead hoist it soon will be with it wurling around, as also pointed out its too low to be practical and if you raise it the misses wont be happy using the ladder to hang the washing out

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

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